Ukraine PM: Conflict with Russia Entering 'Military Stage'

18 Mar 2014

Ukraine’s Western-backed prime minister said on Tuesday that his country’s conflict with Russia was entering a “military stage” following claims by Kiev that one of its officers was shot and wounded in Crimea.

Ukraine’s navy chief Sergiy Gayduk said earlier that an officer had been shot and injured in the leg “during an attack against a base in (Crimea’s main city of) Simferopol.”

He did not specify where or when the incident happened or who was behind the attack.

But an AFP reporter outside a Ukrainian military unit in a suburb northeast of Simferopol heard a burst of gunfire coming from the building and saw two ambulances driving into the area

The region around the military unit was sealed off by what appeared to be pro-Moscow militants.